"The Grand Conjuration" lyrics

[Good and Evil]

I LOVE Opeth. They're my favorite Metal group. I have all eight of their cd's and their dvd as well. I also got to meet them at the SOTU tour this summer (nice guys). I'm confused about something though. Mikael Åkerfeldt said this in a Terrorizer magazine article: "I wanted to write like an occult kind of concept story. I didn't want to write a stupid Satanic lyric and it's not a Satanic album or anything,...". Unless I'm misreading the meaning of "The Grand Conjuration" lyrics, that song seems rather Satanic to me. Am I missing something here? Don't get me wrong, it's a great song, but I would love to see other people's interpretation of it.

 

[Jude]

I LOVE Opeth. They're my favorite Metal group. I have all eight of their cd's and their dvd as well. I also got to meet them at the SOTU tour this summer (nice guys). I'm confused about something though. Mikael Åkerfeldt said this in a Terrorizer magazine article: "I wanted to write like an occult kind of concept story. I didn't want to write a stupid Satanic lyric and it's not a Satanic album or anything,...". Unless I'm misreading the meaning of "The Grand Conjuration" lyrics, that song seems rather Satanic to me. Am I missing something here? Don't get me wrong, it's a great song, but I would love to see other people's interpretation of it.

It's about a guy. Although Akerfeldt has said there isn't a concept, people have noticed that there seems to be one, at least somewhat. This song is about a black mass/someone summoning Satan. It doesn't mean the band is Satanic, but it's about someone doing it (same way Black Sabbath used to get slagged for being Satanic by people who didn't actuall read their lyrics, I guess)

 

[SeventhSphere]

spot-on, jude

 

[:Wreath:]

I thought satanic means 'praising satan'... Well, I didn't see any 'Hail Satan' or 'Praise the name of the unholy lord' in there so just because it talks about the devil doesn't make it satanic...

 

[SeventhSphere]

Dimmu Borgir is Satanic....

 

[musicnerd]

I LOVE Opeth. They're my favorite Metal group. I have all eight of their cd's and their dvd as well. I also got to meet them at the SOTU tour this summer (nice guys). I'm confused about something though. Mikael Åkerfeldt said this in a Terrorizer magazine article: "I wanted to write like an occult kind of concept story. I didn't want to write a stupid Satanic lyric and it's not a Satanic album or anything,...". Unless I'm misreading the meaning of "The Grand Conjuration" lyrics, that song seems rather Satanic to me. Am I missing something here? Don't get me wrong, it's a great song, but I would love to see other people's interpretation of it.

I thought it may have been "satanic" at first too. But as you said, Mikael says that it is not satanic. In simple terms, this album seems to be about a guy who makes a deal/sells his soul to the devil and looses. Some have said that this album is more about the seductiveness of evil. GR seems to portray the devil in a pretty negative light...which seems pretty accurate. Nothing in it praises the devil or anything like that. Since it may be a concept/thematic album, its more like a movie. And being a christian, I was happy to know that Mikael said its not satanic. The music is out of this world. As far as I can tell, its just a story...nothing more.

 

[Jude]

I thought it may have been "satanic" at first too. But as you said, Mikael says that it is not satanic. In simple terms, this album seems to be about a guy who makes a deal/sells his soul to the devil and looses. Some have said that this album is more about the seductiveness of evil. GR seems to portray the devil in a pretty negative light...which seems pretty accurate. Nothing in it praises the devil or anything like that. Since it may be a concept/thematic album, its more like a movie. And being a christian, I was happy to know that Mikael said its not satanic. The music is out of this world. As far as I can tell, its just a story...nothing more.

Exactly right. The song doesn't make Opeth Satanic any more than the song 'Black Sabbath' makes Sabbath Satanic, or 'In Absentia' makes Porcupine Tree a bunch of serial killers.